TAMPA, Fla. – Sorry for the lack of activity on the blog yesterday. I spent a decent part of Friday visiting doctors and getting my right foot inspected. I’m believed to have a stress fracture, but won’t know for sure until an MRI next week.

Not that all this matters . . . but it explains why I’m emptying the notebook here and now, from the past few days. This will involve Mariano Rivera. He is expected later today to announce his impending retirement after the 2013 season.

Most celebrations of Rivera hit on common themes: The magnificence of his cutter; his disciplined nature and principled lifestyle; the confidence he inspired in teammates; his languid grace in the field. Here’s a few smaller notes that popped up on Thursday inside the Yankees clubhouse, as his teammates considered Rivera’s career.

Ivan Nova grew up watching Rivera on television. He felt stunned by Rivera’s kindness when he debuted in 2010.

“The first time I saw him, when he said, ‘Hola’ to me, I was nervous,” he said. “This was Mariano Rivera. I remember when I got called up in Detroit, the way he treated me there, it was like I was a veteran guy, too. That makes you feel really good.”

During the 2011 season, Rivera often hounded Nova to improve. He served as a mentor, and motivator.

“If he saw a game,” Nova said, “say I pitched a good game for me, but I still did something wrong, he’d say ‘I don’t like that. I don’t like that. You’ve got to give more of yourself.’”

When Ichiro Suzuki returned to the Yankees, he felt allured by the organization’s mythology. Rivera is a large part of that.

“When you think about the Yankees, having Derek Jeter at shortstop and Mariano Rivera closing games, I really thought when I would go to the Yankees that was like a special moment,” Suzuki said. “Where you could see the Yankees: Jeter at short, and Mariano closing games. So this year, I’ll get to experience that and see that for myself. So I’m definitely excited about that.”

And lastly, on how Rivera rose from his most momentous failure, blowing Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

“One of the most impressive things I’ve heard over here is the story after the Arizona World Series,” outfielder Matt Diaz said. “How he stayed there and answered every question. Answered the same questions. You guys aren’t overly creative sometimes in situations like that.

“He answered the same questions over and over again. That let’s you know that he’s supremely confident, and not just in who he is as a baseball player, but who he is as a person. He’s not going to let a moment like that define him. And he didn’t.”